Biden arrives Angola in first visit to sub Saharan Africa 

Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has arrived in Angola for what can be described as his first bilateral trip to sub-Saharan Africa. Biden arrived in the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Monday, where he was warmly welcomed by Angolan president Joao Lourenco for a three-day trip to the country.

The trip is believed to represent a final, desperate attempt to fulfil a promise Biden made long ago, and counter China’s expanding influence on the continent. The 82-year-old was expected to have visited Africa in October, but due to Hurricane Milton, the visit was moved to December.

He will be visiting the Lobito Port, which is at the heart of US trade relations with Angola. There, he will assess an ongoing critical minerals infrastructure project that is set to see vast supplies of cobalt and copper delivered to the West.

US influence on the continent has been waning for years, even as China and Russia have strengthened their presence in several countries. China has since 2013 overtaken the US to become Africa’s largest trade partner. This year, the US lost a major spy base in the West African nation of Niger, and its army got kicked out of Chad. That has left it struggling to find a military foothold in the Sahel region.

Biden’s failure to visit any African country – except Egypt for COP27 in November 2022 – until now shows that his administration has not prioritised the continent.

In contrast, President Xi Jinping of China and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin have visited African countries at least twice as heads of state.

The visit to Luanda will see Biden focus on an $800m US-backed railway project in the Lobito Corridor. The passage is a strategic trade route that connects the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to Angola, which hosts the port of Lobito, located on the Atlantic Ocean.

Funded largely by the US and the European Union, the Lobito Atlantic Railway project will see an existing rail network in the Lobito Corridor upgraded. That would allow for the faster export of cobalt and copper, amongst other minerals, mined from the DRC’s Kolwezi mining town, to the West.

The DRC is one of the world’s largest producers of copper and cobalt. The minerals are key components of batteries that power electric vehicles, which the US and EU are eager to develop more of as demand for clean energy supply chains grows.

Washington had provided a $550m loan to start the project. The African Development Bank and the Africa Finance Corporation are also involved. Angola was, until a few years ago, a heavy borrower from China. It has also been historically close to Russia.

However, the government of President Joao Lourenco, which has been in place since 2017, has favoured stronger ties with Washington. The two countries have deepened trade relations and by 2023, US-Angola trade totalled approximately $1.77bn. Angola is the US’s fourth-largest trade partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2021, and more recently, in November 2023, Biden hosted President Lourenco at the White House.